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User-written IELTS example

Writing Academic Task 1 Band 7.0 Example

Original task prompt, user essay, band score, and related examples in the same report workspace.

219 words AcademicTask 1Bar Chart
Task 1

Illustrative target band for this original model answer.

Plan your answer

Try your own response before reading the samples.

Ideas to explore

  • Identify the category that dominates throughout: social welfare leads in all three years, reaching its highest figure in 2014.
  • Separate steady increases from fluctuating or recovering patterns: health and wildlife rise each year, whereas social welfare falls before rebounding.
  • Notice categories that finish at or near their starting values: education returns to 8, while environment ends at 7 compared with 8 initially.

Suggested structure

  1. Introduce the chart by naming the measure, the six charity types and the 2012–2014 period.
  2. Give an overview identifying the largest category and the broad direction of change.
  3. Describe social welfare separately because its figures are much higher and fluctuate notably.
  4. Group the remaining categories by pattern, comparing their starting, middle and final figures.
  5. End with a concise comparison of which categories finished higher, level or lower than in 2012.
Useful vocabulary & examples
a steady upward path
A consistent increase across successive years.

Health followed a steady upward path, rising from 6 to 9.

fell before recovering
Decreased at first and then rose again.

Environment fell to 5 before recovering to 7.

returned to its starting figure
Ended at the same value as at the beginning.

Education returned to its starting figure of 8 in 2014.

edged up
Increased by a small amount.

Arts edged up from 3 to 4 in the final year.

Task Prompt

Task 1: The chart below shows the donation given to six different types of charity by one company from 2012 to 2014.
IELTS Writing Task 1 visual

User Essay Analysis

Review the public answer with report-style highlights.

Band 7.0

The bar graph delineates the proportion of the contribution level of a company for six distinct types of charity across a triennium, commencing in 2012. Overall, it is noticeable that social welfare was the most significant field in which the company spent its money. Moreover, the percentage of donations almost increased and stabilized in all six categories overall, although the year-to-year pattern was not uniform. Social welfare attracted by far the largest donations throughout the period, at about 22 in 2012, falling to 16 in 2013 before reaching 24 in 2014.

Education and environment received similar amounts at the beginning, with both at roughly 8 in 2012. Education then declined to 6 in 2013 and returned to 8 in 2014, while environmental donations fell more noticeably to 5 before recovering to around 7. By contrast, the amount allocated to health rose steadily, from approximately 6 in 2012 to 7 in 2013 and 9 in 2014.

Wildlife and the arts were the least-funded causes. Wildlife donations increased gradually from about 3 to 5 over the three years. Arts funding remained at approximately 3 in 2012 and 2013, then edged up to 4 in 2014. Overall, apart from education and environment, which finished near or slightly below their initial levels, the other causes received higher amounts in 2014 than in 2012.

Targeted Improvement Tips

1
Replace “almost increased and stabilized” with a trend summary that allows for variation, such as noting that most categories rose from 2013 to 2014.
2
Compare the six categories by meaningful patterns: the leading cause, the steadily rising category, and the two smallest causes.
3
Use “amount” or “donation level” rather than “percentage” unless the chart labels its figures as percentages.

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